Top 10: Wrestling Personas

Number 7

Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka

In a 1983 Fijian Strap Match against “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, a long leather strap was tied to each wrestler’s wrist, serving as a built-in foreign object used for strangling and slapping. Despite Piper’s Scottish brawling ability, The Superfly is from the Fiji Islands, and, inevitably, his strap-match experience gave him the upper hand.

“The Superfly,” then, is a Fijian native whose signature leap from the top turnbuckle is an acrobatic, Tarzan-like move. “The Superfly” character, after all, wore leopard-print ball-huggers and a headband while he flew around the ring like he was swinging through the jungle.

Number 6

Nature Boy Ric Flair

The Nature Boy Ric Flair is as close to the consummate pro as you get in wrestling. During his 35-year career (as wrestler or manager), Flair has managed to use his Nature Boy shtick to be “the man” in just about every league throughout wrestling’s topsy-turvy history with the American public.

Flair, above all, is a supremely talented actor, who can sell a controversy to the public as well as any other wrestler. Despite an occasionally flamboyant garment, Flair has mostly relied on his mouth to stir things up. In the pretty-boy tradition of Gorgeous George, Ravishing Rick Rude and Mr. Perfect, Ric Flair has been promoting his own beauty since 1972. He is, in short, the Mick Jagger of the wrestling circuit. And somehow, he’s still kicking.

Number 5

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper

Piper is a kilt-wearing Scottish loudmouth. Star of the narcissistic WWF episode “Piper’s Pit,” Piper played a shameless, self-promoting Scot in love with himself. Along with his kilt, Piper wore a “Hot Rod” T-shirt, and in one classic “In the Pit with Piper” segment, Roddy the interviewer interviewed Roddy the wrestler. Throughout the interview, they compliment each other’s beauty, intelligence and sexual prowess to the point that a little Piper-on-Piper action seems to be in the cards.

Number 4

The Ultimate Warrior

The Ultimate Warrior was an aboriginal wrestling persona who chanted and ranted about some kind of warrior code of ethics. With a costume comprised of a few tassels, some face paint, and extreme athleticism, The Ultimate Warrior portrayed a warrior culture in which the goal was to defend indigenous lands and people from external threats. As a wrestler, The Warrior played his role with tenacity and vague allusions to the spirit world. His interviews were usually full of half-baked chants: “I look up to the gods, and when you fall below the skeletons of the warrior’s path, the powers of the warrior will become the eighth wonder of the world.” Uh… right… the gods, skeletons. Whatever you say, Mr. Warrior, just don’t kick our ass.

Wrestling personas also include the undead, savages and all-American heroes…